Berlusconi welcomes back Casini into centre right

UDC leader broke off alliance with ex-premier in 2006

(ANSA) - Rome, February 3 - Silvio Berlusconi on Monday
welcomed the announcement by Pier Ferdinando Casini that he
intends to ally his small centrist UDC party with the
ex-premier's Forza Italia at the next Italian election.

Former House Speaker Casini was allied with Berlusconi
from when the billionaire media magnate embarked on a political
career two decades ago until the end of the second and
longest-lasting of Berlusconi's three governments, in 2006.

Casini, a former member of the Christian Democrat party
that dominated Italian politics after World War II until it
collapsed amid corruption scandals in the early 1990s, has
frequently been highly critical of Berlusconi since.

But the breakdown of the UDC's alliance with the centrist
Civil Choice party of ex-premier Mario Monti after a poor
showing at last year's general election and the likely arrival
of a new election law has forced Casini back into the
centre-right fold.

The new election law plan threatens to see the UDC excluded
from parliament if it does not join an alliance, as the entry
threshold will be 8% for parties that run alone, compared to
4.5% for those in a coalition.

Matteo Renzi, the new leader of the centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) who framed the new election law plan with Berlusconi,
had been cool about the idea of being allied with the UDC when
Italy returns to the polls.

Casini's announcement that he was returning to the centre
right was met with stiff criticism from some members of
Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party.

But Berlusconi said Monday he did not share these
judgements.

"I've always wanted him to return to the area of the
moderates and I can only be happy about it, as I believe his
movement can offer a real contribution to the centre right's
victory," Berlusconi said in a statement.